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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29950398">Three Rings</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessExplorer/pseuds/EndlessExplorer'>EndlessExplorer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Declarations Of Love, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Love, Love Confessions, Love at First Sight, Post-War, Rings, True Love, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Rings, Weddings, Worry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:41:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,316</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29950398</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessExplorer/pseuds/EndlessExplorer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They say that there are three rings in a marriage...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra Pentaghast/Male Trevelyan, Male Inquisitor/Cassandra Pentaghast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three Rings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                They say there are three rings to a marriage. Three goals to reach in the pursuit for eternal and everlasting love with your significant other. First you have the promise ring.</p><p>---</p><p>                Cassandra woke up in a haze. Her head hurt, body broken and bloody. Yet this wasn’t what was on her mind at the moment. A grey warden healer stood nearby, muttering prayers over what had to be some of her passed compatriots.</p><p>                “Where is the Inquisitor? Where is James!”</p><p>                The healer rushed over and put a gentle, yet firm hand on her shoulder, forcing her to put her head down. Bandages were obscuring one side of her head, so her vision was also subpar, and Cassandra was really starting to worry. This worry was quickly burning into fury.</p><p>                “Lady Cassandra, you were severely injured in the fight against the Archdemon. You must rest.”</p><p>                “What happened?”</p><p>                “From what we can tell, Warden-Commander Clarel hit the Archdemon with a spell before it killed her and it crashed, taking out the bridge that you and the Inquisitor were standing on. The Inquisitor threw you clear before he fell into a fade rift alongside the Archdemon.”</p><p>                “You cannot be serious…”</p><p>                “I wish I weren’t. The Inquisitor is the only one who can seal the rift and every few minutes, demons spill from it. Most of those who get brought in here are too gravely wounded for anything other than soft words and peaceful deaths.”</p><p>                Cassandra clenched her fist before slamming it down beside her in the cot. Sounds rang from outside, snarls and horrific shrieks as more monsters spilled through.</p><p>                “Please remain still and allow yourself heal Lady Pentaghast. I must go and help my brothers and sisters.”</p><p>                Despite her injuries, Cassandra managed to spot demons of all sorts just outside the tent before the tent flap fell closed. Wincing, she brought her hands together, clutching them together, praying that the Maker could hear her.</p><p>---</p><p>                James clenched his teeth as he fought back against the demons. Fear was nothing like Envy, Fear was toying with them and it knew that it was painful. Visions of past pain, torture, and trauma were being used on them for the demons entertainment and James watched as Hawke was forced to kill a shadow of Merrill, his elven wife. He had been so happy when he thought he saw her through one of the Eluvians that stood around the realm. It looked like she was walking through to him, but the shadow only screamed and swung at him, apparently determined on ending his life. James could see the unfathomable horror on Garretts face as he buried his dagger deep in her chest. Hawke stroked the silverite band on his hand as he clutched the shadow closely. The unnerving cackle of Fear rang out through the realm.</p><p>                “When I get my hands on that maker forsaken demon… I will tear him to pieces with my bare hands!”</p><p>                “Master Hawke, I hope that you do not believe these visions to be real. It is simply the demons machinations, testing us and our resolve.”</p><p>                Hawke hadn’t realised that the shadow had already dispelled, as he stood up and was in Solas’ face within a second. His eyes were narrowed and the muscle in his jaw taut. He had a murderous look in his eye before he calmed again and walked away. While James didn’t always get along with the elf, he was happy to have Solas along with them on this. He had more experience than them all combined a thousand-fold.</p><p>                “Yeah… yeah, I know. Just venting a bit.”</p><p>                “Any idea on how we get out of here? I don’t exactly plan on spending the rest of my life in here…”</p><p>                <em>‘I can help you with that, Herald’</em></p><p>----</p><p>                As much as the Healer urged her, Cassandra refused to stay bedridden and was quickly on her feet again. James, Hawke, Stroud, Solas, and Blackwall had been in the Fade for a little over a day at this point and Cassandra was seriously worried. Worried that something had happened to them, to James. The thought left an awful taste in her mouth and so, she cast it from her mind and focused on other things. Things such as aiding the templars in purging the twisted demonic magic that had been steadily leaking out of the rift. People had been speculating that the angry appearance of this final rift was due to it almost being ripped open like an old wound, the scab ripped wide open.</p><p>                “Any sign of our boy yet, Seeker?”</p><p>                She had lost count of the number of times that she wanted to wring that smug dwarfs face but a part of her felt bad for Varric. However worried he was about James’ apt return; she knew he was even more worried for Hawke. She really underestimated just how close friends they were.</p><p>                “Nothing as of yet.”</p><p>                “Damn. I really don’t want to give bad news to Daisy. If I know Hawke and James as well as I think I do, the Fade wouldn’t be able to deal with that headache. They’ll come back to us; I just know it.”</p><p>                Cassandra allowed herself to chuckle at the idea of James chewing the ear off some Pride demon. “I pray you are right, Varric.”</p><p>                Suddenly, the rift began to increase in size, and everyone prepared for another onslaught of demons to spill through. Shield bearers took point, protecting their brothers and sisters and everything grew silent as they waited for the inevitable. Cassandra gritted her teeth as she lifted her tower shield. The runes he had Dagna carve in the metal hummed quietly. Cassandra was caught speechless when she received the gift from him. A tower shield, almost as tall as she, but practically weightless while also being capable of taking direct attacks from even the Archdemon without crumbling in her hands. She had insisted in him keeping it, but he swore he couldn’t. He was very adept at dual daggers and said that even weightless it would only slow him down. He told her that he had it made so that she could protect everyone, just like she wanted to. That is what she would do now. As long as she could still draw breath, the shield would stand defiant and vigilant. The rift began to crackle and hiss before, in a flash of light, James and everyone else fell through. Everyone was caught off guard except for Cassandra who brought the shield over and blanketed the crowd. She had hoped that she hadn’t come across as desperate in her haste to reach them, but her heart ached in the uncertainty of James’ return to her.</p><p>---</p><p>                She heard that he was on the battlements, so she slowly made her way up. Her broken ribs had her moving at a slightly slower pace than her usual, but she still reached the top without much trouble. She could hear Blackwall, and sure enough once she reached the top, she caught the two of them wrapped in an almost brotherly embrace. Despite being the youngest member of a noble family, James had regaled her with many tales of being the black sheep of the family and that it wasn’t until he was labelled a hero and heavenly prophet that his family was more than happy to call him a Trevelyan.</p><p>                <em>‘The Inner Circle and the rest of the Inquisition is my family…’</em> She remembered him telling her one night in the Herald’s rest. They had a few ales and had retreated upstairs while the drinking and dancing began in earnest downstairs.</p><p>                Blackwall broke the embrace and almost bumped into Cassandra as he headed down. With the Wardens being given a new lease on life, the soldiers had felt like breaking bread together to commemorate the occasion. Cassandra had been against the idea of allowing the Wardens remain since they had caused so much trouble, but she had met so many that thanked her and the herald for freeing them from the servitude of a Tevinter Magister that was hellbent on destroying Thedas. Inquisition soldiers and Wardens were singing, dancing, and drinking together like they had been lifelong friends. She was pretty sure that some of them were. James was leaning on the battlements, staring out at the Western Approach before Cassandra came up beside him and leaned against the weather stone with as much grace as she could muster. Taking her natural lack of grace and pairing it with her current condition, she was sure that she had as much grace as a Druffalo in a ceramic shop.</p><p>                “Why am I not surprised that you wouldn’t listen to the healers?”</p><p>                “What do you mean?”</p><p>                “I believe it is quite clear what I mean. You have several broken ribs Cassandra and I would be heartbroken if you got even more hurt.”</p><p>                Cassandra poked him in the ribs and despite her playful intent, the grimace on his face made her feel bad. “I’m pretty certain that you did not escape harm either.”</p><p>                James gave a somewhat melancholy smile before returning to his position on the wall. Their silence was comfortable in the warmness of the evening, but Cassandra couldn’t help but feel a slight tension between them that had never existed before.</p><p>                “What was it like? The fade, I mean.”</p><p>                James wrung his hands a few times while his mouth opened and closed. There was conflict, pain, and anger on his face, like he was trying to get his thoughts together and wasn’t sure what to tell her.</p><p>                “It’s alright if- “</p><p>                “Unimaginable. Everything was twisted and warped. Alive but dead, happy but sad. Bright but shrouded in an impenetrable darkness. I can understand what drove Corypheus insane. Nothing was what you thought it was.”</p><p>                “That sounds horrible.”</p><p>                “But that’s not the worst part. Your darkest fears made real. I lied to the others.”</p><p>                “You lied? Whatever for?”</p><p>                “I told them that my fears were made manifest in spiders and monsters, but my biggest fear was… you.”</p><p>                The words felt like daggers and spears to her heart. He had made it through the realm of nightmares, and she was his biggest fear? Cassandra took a few steps back which grabbed James attention. The look of pain and betrayal rivalled that of any that Nightmare could have conjured. James went to grab her arm but despite her injuries, Cassandra still took a step back and he grabbed nought but air.</p><p>                “Andraste’s tits! Shit! Cassandra, please come back! That wasn’t what I meant!”</p><p>                Cassandra stopped but where there had been pain, there was now a raging fury that had twisted her beautiful, soft features into something resembling a snarl.</p><p>                “And what did you mean?!”</p><p>                “You’re not what I was afraid of Cassandra.”</p><p>                “You just said I was!”</p><p>                “I meant LOSING you! I’m so scared of losing you Cassandra that I wake up in a sweat. I’m scared that a stray arrow could hit you, or an assassin’s blade might simply nick too deep. What I saw in there, what I had to fight through in order to get back to you, was you.”</p><p>                It was safe to see that Cassandra hadn’t expected James confession and the pain that dripped from his voice had quenched her earlier fury. She could see tears in the corners of his eyes.</p><p>                “Either you were bloated from having drowned, or headless from an axe swing. The worst one though was when you appear to have been corrupted by red Lyrium, your face was craven and hollow, your eyes dead and hollow. To somehow make it worse, every time I would strike you down, you would blame me for what had happened… so yeah, like I said… Unimaginable.”</p><p>                Cassandra watched as James fell back against the battlement, deflated from the exchange and she stood there shell shocked before sitting beside him and wrapping her arms around him in an embrace.</p><p>                “Nothing will ever happen to me James. I will not let Corypheus win. We will not let him win.”</p><p>                “I know we won’t, but while I was in the fade, I decided that I wanted to do something next time I saw you.”</p><p>                Cassandra watched as he pulled off his ring and offered it to her. The ring was silver, with the coat of House Trevelyan etched on the outside.</p><p>                “Your house ring?”</p><p>                “I swear I’ll get you a proper one, but I want to make you a promise Cassandra. I am a faithful man and I believe in our mission to stop Corypheus and save Thedas. Andraste can have my soul and I will serve as her prophet for as long as she has need of me… but I promise to you, Cassandra Pentaghast as the maker and his bride are my witnesses, my heart.”</p><p>                “What are you saying?”</p><p>                “I love you Cassandra. I have from the moment I laid my eyes on you and I want you to know that I will love you for eternity. The Inquisition has my body, Andraste, my soul… but you have my heart Cassandra. Always.”</p><p>                Cassandra sat there, speechless as he dropped the ring into her hand. “I’m not sure if the feeling is mutual or not, but I had to get it off my chest.”</p><p>                Cassandra dropped the ring and grabbing James’ head, pulled him down and kissed him. There was a hunger to this kiss, unspoken feelings and unspoken words were being expressed by both parties and the passion threatened to consume them in its beautiful chaos. Cassandra felt herself being pulled up towards his chest until she was straddling him and a few seconds later, she broke the kiss. Her head was cloudy from desire but for the first time in ages, her heart was elated. She was happy. Pressing her forehead to James’, they sat there for a moment, simply happy in each other’s company.</p><p>                “And mine, yours.”</p>
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